Saturday, November 22, 2008

Can we kiss the wild places of America goodbye?



First the BLM opened up land to the highest bidder for natural gas drilling that is within site of Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.
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Next it was the ultra-dirty and water-hog oil shale drilling leases being considered for sale in the arid states of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.
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Now Secretary of Interior Kempthorne is proposing opening up land that borders Yellowstone National Park for geothermal energy exploration.
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Does the Bush Administration hold nothing sacred? Why is the West always the poster child for life-altering, term-ending legislation for outgoing president's that obviously don't give a damn?

Before you know it, my favorite camping spots are going to be turned into parking lots.

When will this ever end?

The end of January can not come fast enough.

7 comments:

Peter said...

Welcome aboard, Lula!

Carlos said...

Welcome LULA! (You share a moniker with the two-term president of Brasil, a good leader and a progressive, too.):)

This eleventh-hour threat to our national parks is an outrageous parting shot from the Bush JUNTA. Evidently, rules with the force of law signed by Bush and published in the Federal Register by 10/21, would be very difficult to undo b/c they will take effect before the transfer of power. There's a whole list of such despicable anti-environment, anti-consumer, anti-people "regulations" approved by the Bush regime under the radar that President Obama will have to find a way to reverse.

I'll be curious to see what criminals Bush pardons: The president, vice president, and on down the list?

Rousing Rabble said...

Welcome to the crew Lula. I have a feeling that future blog meetings are going to be a bit more civilized than they have been in the past ;-) I do want to speak to your point regarding the Bush administration's interior policy. It certainly offends my sensibilitiers, and beyound that it is certainly misguided, however like the criticisms of the executive pardon policy, I am not sure that it is at all illegal under current law. Congress has abdicated so much of its oversight authority over the past eight years (the last two years have been unforgivable) that Bush and Darth Cheney have seen little reason to worry at all about bluster from anyone left of say Sam Brownback. I know that Obama has made "change" the buzzword, and I pray that he sees the necessity of allowing congress to take back some of its lost authority in these matters.

Peter said...

We have had (have, actually, just not very active)members from the distaff side, RR, but they unfortunately are not active posters.

The midnight regulations are sadly quite legal. The key is to be vigilant in rolling them back.

GO ILLINI! BEAT NU!

Peter said...

Never mind that "beat NU" thing. Lord we suck!

Coincidence? For the first time EVER I received a mailing from the University of Illinois general fund. LOTS of stuff in the past from the law school, but never a fundraiser from the main U of I, as I was not an undergrad there.

And now my son has an application pending.

Coincidence???

L said...

Please don't hold back on my account. I live with three males. Nothing's sacred.

Like has been said, I hope Obama can reverse some of this disastrous policy. If not, Bush did just lose a battle in the US District Court recently on allowing more snowmobiles in Yellowstone. The judge said no dice and sided with the scientists. Surprise, surprise. Animals 1, Bush 35

Rousing Rabble said...

Of course, I was aware that we have had "crew members" of the fairer (and much better fragranced) sex. However, as you note, they have been sadly silent over lo these many years. Oh, and I was being VERY quiet about the big tilt today, even though I was HAPPY to take the 2 points from Vegas...